The invention relates to a feeder for elongate components, in particular components designed with a head such as rivets, studs, pins, weld-in parts, which feeder has a feed tube with an inlet orifice which can be connected to a feed line and an orifice in the top region thereof and a gripper with at least two gripping arms which are provided with a front gripping region and a rear pivot axis region.
Prior art feeders are used wherever cylindrical parts, for example, have to be supplied in large numbers to a further processing station as is the case, for example, in the car industry. Other known examples of these feeders include, for example, rivet setting tools. The feed rate is the critical point as it substantially determines the productivity of a production process.
At high feed rates there is the risk with numerous feeders that components to be supplied will jam or will be supplied in a tilted manner. Therefore, a gripper for the components to be supplied is provided in feeders so that the components can be gripped and can be reliably placed on the further processing station. In known feeders, for example, the gripper is arranged outside a feed tube. The gripper consisting of two gripping arms rests on plane supports which, at the bottom, limit the feed chamber which is designed to taper between the gripping arms of the gripper. In their back region, the gripping arms have pivot pins which are inserted into holes in this support and allow pivoting of the gripping arms in order to open and close the gripper. The plane support is an integral part of a feed channel which is located in front of the pivot axes of the gripping arms in the conveying direction of the supplied parts and is limited by two vertical lateral walls but is open at the top. Therefore, the components to be supplied are able to escape upwardly and, under undesirable conditions, can leave the feed channel completely on the one hand or jam in it and make the supply of further components impossible on the other hand. The problem of tilting occurs mainly with those components which are to be supplied and are designed with a head, the dimensions of the head generally being greater than the shank dimensions. These components are, for example, rivets. However, to prevent the components which are to be supplied from tilting, it is necessary to reduce the feed rate of the components. However, this reduces the speed of the production process.
It is accordingly the object of the present invention to provide a feeder with which jamming or tilting of the components to be supplied is avoided even at high feed rates.